Lorry driver smeared poo on two women in Ramsbottom pub

A LORRY driver who deliberately smeared excrement on two women has been barred from a Ramsbottom pub.

Mark Follos, aged 51, had denied the allegations, but has been barred from The Oaks, in Bridge Street, after being found guilty of two charges of outraging public decency at Bury Magistrates on Friday.

The court heard that Follos smeared excrement on women on two separate occasions at the pub, on October 12, 2012, and on October 25 the same year, and admitted that he had not washed his hands.

Follos was arrested about a year later after a CCTV image was circulated through a Pub Watch scheme in Ramsbottom.

On October 12, 2012, the first victim told the court that she initially thought Follos may have been rubbing drugs on her arm.

The woman said: “He came up to me from behind, and I was facing the door. He spoke to us briefly. He did a movement as if drying his hands on my arm.

“I realised what it was on my arm, it was poo. I looked at it, I touched it and smelled my hand.”

When asked how she felt when she realised what had happened, the woman, who was in tears at the witness box, said: “I thought I must have upset someone.”

The court heard that the on October 25, 2012, the second victim found a "four-inch smear" on her arm.

She told the court: “This man just came and took hold of my arm and said can I get you a drink. I said no thank you, we have already got one.

“Then he left and that is when I could smell something, so I thought his hand maybe wasn’t that clean.”

The court heard that Follos, of St Annes Road, Wolverhampton, works as a lorry driver and regularly travelled between Scotland and the Marshalls plant in Ramsbottom.

He would park up and then go into Ramsbottom for a drink before he started his shift again the following day.

Follos denied that the first incident was deliberate, and said he did not have any recollection of the second incident.

Being questioned on the first incident, Follos said: “Do I look the sort of person that goes around wiping mess on people?

“I went to the toilet, had a wee and passed a motion, and on my way out I must have picked something up from somewhere which got on my hand.

“I was in a bit of a rush and I hadn’t washed my hands. I went out of the toilet and continued to the exit of the pub.

“There was a number of ladies in the pub on that night and as an act of courtesy I touched one and said goodnight, have a nice night, and exited the pub. As simple as that.”

After he was found guilty, James Daly, defending, described the incident as “moments of madness” on Follos’s part.

Follos was ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work, pay costs of £1,010 and was barred from the pub for a year.